Small businesses tend to approach digital marketing channel first: we should be on TikTok, we need SEO, let’s try Google Ads. Each idea may be good. Together, without a plan, they compete for the same small budget and the same few hours a week.
A strategy reverses the order. It starts with what the business needs and works down to channels. Here is the one-page format we use, with a worked example for a fictional physiotherapy clinic in downtown Toronto.
1. What does the business need?
One goal, written as a number with a date. Our clinic wants to grow from about 25 to 40 new patients a month by March, without adding weekend hours.
A clear goal immediately rules things out. Brand awareness among all of Toronto, for example, is not the job right now.
2. Who exactly, and what do they search?
The clinic’s best patients are office workers with back and neck pain, recreational runners and people recovering from surgery, mostly living or working within a few kilometres. They search for things like “physio near me”, “physiotherapy King West”, “sports physio Toronto” and “physio direct billing”.
3. Why you and not the clinic next door?
Every block downtown seems to have a clinic, so the plan must say why this one. In our example: evening appointments until 8 pm, direct billing to most insurers and a first visit available within the same week. Those three facts will appear in every ad, on every page and in the Google Business Profile.
4. Which channels, and in what order?
| Channel | Job | When |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile and reviews | Be the obvious local choice | Now |
| Google Search ads | Catch people ready to book | Now |
| Online booking page | Make booking instant | Now |
| Show the team and real results | Month two | |
| Bring back past patients | Month three |
Three channels start immediately, two follow once the basics work. Everything else waits.
5. How much, and how is it split?
Work backwards. If one in three enquiries books and an enquiry from search costs around $40, forty new patients need roughly 120 enquiries, or about $4,800 a month if every patient came from ads. Reviews, the Business Profile and referrals will cover part of that, so the real ad budget starts lower and grows as results are proven.
6. What will we say, and how often?
Three pillars: short exercise tips, meet the team, and patient stories shared with permission. One short video a week, one post and a monthly email. Enough to look alive and helpful, not so much that the front desk burns out.
7. How will we know it is working?
- New patient bookings per month, by source.
- Cost per booked patient from ads.
- Review count and average rating.
- Calls and direction requests from the Business Profile.
Review monthly, adjust quarterly. That is the whole plan, and it fits on a page. If you would like one written for your business, our growth strategy work produces exactly this.
